• Horoscopes for 7-22-2025
  “Yes, the fashion is the fashion.” Conrad in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (III.iii.50)

  Horoscopes for 7-22-2025

  Find me in July…

  • Sun into Leo 7/22
  • New Moon 2°8’ Leo 7/24
  • Venus into Can. 7/31

  Horoscopes for 7-22-2025

  The Leo

  When I started this, as a web page? I was playing with web hosting, and trying to understand the mechanics of writing for the new media, “World Wide Web.” Amusing, to me, I signed up for my first website hosting arrangement when Mercury was retrograde, the “free trial” period ended when Mercury was no longer retrograde, and it was one of those situations, I timed it with the planets, doing it at a time when the actual paid versions didn’t hit until Mercury was out of retrograde. Ostensibly, I was doing it like that so I could change my mind, when Mercury was no longer backwards. However, it was really pretty much a done deal, as I knew, despite the revokable nature of the decision, that I wasn’t going to change. I just had a few free weeks to play with it, and learn what I didn’t know. The rest, as they say, is history. There’s a second part of this, in Virgo, below, but for The Leo? It’s OK to decide when Mercury is retrograde, just, like me, don’t make it “official” until we’re done with this mess. And happy Birthday. You thought I forgot?

  Virgo

  The original impetus was a play on words. A joke, if you will. I will. The original source, and the actual file was left behind in a sleazy TexMex dive, wrong side of town. The idea, a Scorpio sketched it, me, in a boat, with a fishing pole, and stars dangling from the pole, reflected in the water, over my head, the signs spinning and turning. That was the idea. Cogitation, conceptions, mutation, growth, contraction, good ideas, bad ideas, good experiences, bad experiences, good times, fun time, other times. “Other times?” That’s the Virgo weekly clue. This is “other times.” It’s not good, it’s not bad, but approach is very important. I took the tiniest kernel of an idea, a quick sketch when others were more enlightened, and I used that idea as a launch point. Virgo: this is about ideas sketched on a napkin, the back of an old envelope, a bill you needed to pay, or some other remanent of memory. Fragments. Fragments yield results, but picking which way this goes? Not yet.

  Libra

  How one organizes a personal library tells me much. I’m a book person, so I watch, look, and read the spines of the books. But of importance now? How is that data sorted? I favor chronological by date of publication, as that tracks an author’s progress, and while I’ve read a few long-running series, other authors I arrived at late, so maybe not so much in chronological order. I prefer doing it by date of publication as that shows a progression, although, one author, he jumped around in his character’s timeline, with the third book being the origin story in detail, while some years later, he included the parental stories, as well. All over the place. But how information, like books, is organized? I do keep the various reference books close to the desktop, and all the Shakespeare stuff in one place. One Libra looked at my library, “You could organize by color, that would look good.” It’s about organization, and being willing to look at what are the underlying principles, and think about changing them.

  Scorpio

  My best advice? “I’d take a vacation.” Poor Scorpio, muttering? “I can’t take a vacation, you jerk.” Still, build in pause, a moment, a weekend, some kind of routine self-care that works within your own guidelines, and do that. Two Scorpios I know? One needs an evening, alone in a bar, on a barstool, watching a game on the TV. The other needs a full week, OK, maybe three days, at a spa, with massage, cucumber water, hot oil, cold plunge, I-don’t-know-what. Out of my range of experience. Some place in between those two, though, is the happy place for some routine Scorpio care — Your Mileage May Vary

  Sagittarius

  My limited understanding of Eggs Benedict is that the original was a soft-poached egg on what we call an English Muffin, with a slice of ham, sometimes bacon, and a dollop of hollandaise sauce. “Soft-poached,” to me, means “runny.” Puncturing the yolk is part of what makes it a good breakfast, a decent meal. I have a couple of women in my life who like food cooked until it is ‘dead.’ Eggs Benedict one morning? “Eww! That egg is, like raw! I can’t eat that!” We swapped plates, and I had a delicious local version, a queso-type (cheese) dip in place of hollandaise, and sprinkled with hot peppers. For future reference? “Eggs poached hard.” Most, not all, but most Sagittarius types are like me, the condition of the food is less important, but there were some picky eaters. Oh well. For our Sagittarius selves? This about being clear about what we want, and being clear about cooked, under-cooked, appropriately cooked, or even raw, doesn’t much matter. That one old girlfriend? “Dead. I like my food dead.”

  Capricorn

  Adjacent. Best word I could think of? Best expression? All the problems are Capricorn Adjacent, which is, you will note, is not in Capricorn; however it is right next door. Therein is both good news and bad news. One typically dour Capricorn will expound on how it is all bad news, and even the good news has an evil intent. Shake that attitude, and understand, the problems, and the lack of Capricorn solutions? Those problem, challenges, and obstacles? All Capricorn adjacent, but not in Capricorn. You can pick up the problem, embrace it, take it home with you, and thereby insure that what was just next door is now yours, too. Or? Leave it alone. If it isn’t yours? Then why take ownership? Capricorn adjacent is not the same in Capricorn.

  Aquarius

  Used it before, and I’ll use it again. This is purely an understanding that I have, and one I haven’t actually fact checked with Law Enforcement — but I’ll submit it, anyway, to Aquarius. The local law, as I understand it, a vehicle has to make complete and full stop behind a stop sign before moving forward. Complete stop. If I were riding a two-wheel device, like a motorcycle, the complete stop would necessitate me putting down my foot to support myself. Couldn’t just roll up, pause, look both ways, and motor off. When I was a rider, I was good enough that I could roll up, come to a complete stop for a heartbeat, glance at any traffic, assess the situation and drop the bike into its tall first gear, easing away, or wheeling away, maybe jetting off, but I could do it without putting a foot down. Never got caught, so there is that, but as I understand it, even when driving my old truck or the hybrid? A complete stop means I have to put a foot down. I can’t afford to do a rolling stop. It’s a matter of understanding that a Mr. Mercury in his condition, the Sun, briefly opposite from Pluto, and everything else? A full stop means just that, a full stop. Rolling through that Aquarius stop sign can mean trouble.

  Pisces

  I lived in Austin during early, formative years. Gave birth to this career, and the creative cauldron from those past days of myth and magic? More myth and less magic, but whatever, those days allowed for the creative juices to stew, coalesce, simmer, cook, and combine to form whatever this is, more than three decades later. This next week, and then, the rest of the mercurial mayhem ministrations is all about looking back, for Pisces, so you can also look forward. Glance back, look over your shoulder, take stock of what you’ve done thus far, and then, and only after you’ve gotten a good image of where you’ve been can you plot a way forward. The biggest issue with this particular Mercury in Retrograde? That glance back over your shoulder? Given the position and placement? It tempts one to take a deep dive on past issues, and I didn’t say it was all right to dwell in the Pisces past, just look back for future guidance.

  Aries

  I have one group of friends, the usual question? “If you’re in jail, and need someone to call at 3 AM, who do you call?” As suggested, I can list about three or four guys to call. Not a one is immediate “family,” but as extended and tight friendships go? There is that. Likewise, and I suspect one of my buddies could very well end up “detained,” I would take his call, get dressed, call a bail bond place I know near the jail, and then, be there when he emerged, giving him a ride home, back to his girlfriend, or the impound lot to fetch his truck. The guess as to the circumstances are best left to speculation, but poor decisions and bad judgement will probably be involved. Could be a fight, could a drunken disorderly, could be any number of situations, but the idea, for Aries? Face-to-face with that questionable judgment call, exacerbated by Mercury Mayhem, who will you call? Have a good lawyer on speed-dial? Or maybe? Don’t. (Don’t do it in the first place.)

  Taurus

  Formative years, for me? A decade in a trailer park in old South Austin. A place the size of large shoebox, maybe, and the kitchen, where I would make coffee, next to the workspace where I prepared horoscopes — and catfish bait. Plus studied Shakespeare plays. That was formative, foundation material, and the point is that I didn’t have to change rooms, to go into the kitchen to refill a coffee cup. No change meant no change to my frame of reference. As long as I didn’t change my frame of reference, then I didn’t lose track of whatever it was that flitting through what I favor to call my mind. My own consciousness is fickle, and probably weird to most. Not a problem, we know this. But the change in frame of reference is important, and a particular point for this week’s Taurus as it shows how easy it is to lose track of what we were thinking. In a tight, confined space, this isn’t a problem to stay on track and to stay focused on that one goal. However, the mercurial machinations are such that it feels like those Taurus frames of refence are being tilted, set on edge, or totally pushed out the door. Problem? Only in how you deal with them shifting.

  Gemini

  For several years, this was maybe two or three addresses back, when I moved in, one of the first purchases? I got a picnic table for the back yard. Simple, wood furniture, and I promptly painted it with a discounted can of paint that was a mistake, but I bought anyway. Wasn’t my mistake, but it was color someone mixed up, and then either returned or never used, or the paint didn’t match the chip. The layers of cheap paint served to help protect the unvarnished wood. I suspect that the picnic table is still there; I wouldn’t know. The trick was that paint. It was all of a dollar, and the paint brush I used cost more. The paint served to coat and protect that wood for the years I was there. The big plan of using the picnic table for an outdoor workspace? Never really happened. The idea of dining “al fresco?” Looked like fun, but oppressive summer heat, the fire hazard of an outdoor grill, and the relative swarms of insects? It was a great idea, and the next tenant is probably enjoying that picnic table. It stood up to the ravages of outdoors life the elements all because of a can of cheap paint. Instead of an expensive solution? A coat of cheap paint can fix a lot of problems, if only for the time being.

  Cancer

  Some days, these are “Big Deals,” and I’m tempted to put an exclamation mark around the term, “Big Deal.” But I won’t, because, let’s face it, these aren’t really big deals but more like little deals some people are trying to make big. There is also a subtle Cancer, Moon Child flair for the dramatic, so to suggest, and that bubbles up. The shortcuts of text culture have ruined this, but the expression, “OMG,” that about covers it all. It’s mostly not a big deal, but it feels like a big deal because the relative position of the Sun, the Moon, Mercury in Retrograde — plus a host of other stuff. The meaning, from me to you? Weight the definition of “Big Deals” against previous historical versions. Look at the “Big Deals” next to other events that truly were big deals. While some comparisons don’t hold up, the act of situating one “big deal” next to a previous “big deal” affords enough time to make a better assement.

Get these horoscopes delivered via e-mail.

• The Road to Tender Hearts
• Round Top, TX II
• Surviving (Shakespeare) Winedale